Very vivid and an interesting way of telling the story...
Though if we know that things are going to end up bad for Britain, won't that colour our perceptions when you go back to write about Randolph's career?
I'm actually going to go back to 'book excerpts' for the rest, but it's meant to set the scene slightly... In terms of colouring perceptions, Randolph's career actually ends many years before the mid 1930's and on a high- the epilogue will make this aspect clearer, but the parts set in the 1930s are meant to show how ossification sets in and the children squander the legacy of their fathers, if that makes sense.
In OTL terms, it's a bit like following Attlee's career, finishing in 1951 and then flashing forward to Callaghan or Foot in the 1980's- all things must pass and all that.
On reflection, I don't think the Chinese pushing down through the Himalayas sounds terribly likely. I would expect them to drive into India in the relative lowlands on either sides, in the two regions which the PRC and the Indian republic fought later in OTL: modern Arunachal Pradesh and Jammu and Kashmir. Going through the Himalayas would be a logistical nightmare and then you've got Nepal and its Gurkhas to deal with. Of course, I suppose those two regions could technically be said to lie in the broader Himalaya area, especially from the vaguer view of Englishmen, but...
Indeed. Note that Winston said the _Himalayas_ are holding fine- mentioning the rout in Burma and Indochina wouldn't fit well with the point he was making...
Ah, but he wouldn't be acceptable as Foreign Sec, not in this period. Not aristocratic, and too 'unpredictable'.
The situation looks pretty rum at the moment. A Willoughby de Broke in Cabinet!? Dear god, what kind of tin-pot party is this that has been created?
Is this a Wilhelmine Germany we're talking about here? Somehow I suspect it is...
Well there is that. Still would be entertaining though! As for Willoubghy de Broke, what's wrong with that? Good aristocratic stock, that.
Surprised nobody's mentioned the presence of William Allen and *TE Lawrence for that matter. By the 1930s His Majesty's Government is not the most pluralistic of administrations, that's for sure. Opposition leaders are imprisoned, but I'd note that regardless of their level of popular support they aren't the
Official Opposition. They get mentioned in there as well.
As for Germany, all shall become clear in time! It's not quite a direct analogue to anything we saw OTL though.